March 06

Leviticus 11

2Say to the children of Israel: These are the living things which you may have for food among all the beasts on the earth.

3You may have as food any beast which has a division in the horn of its foot, and whose food comes back into its mouth to be crushed again.

4But, at the same time, of those beasts, you may not take for food the camel, because its food comes back but the horn of its foot is not parted in two; it is unclean to you.

5And the rock-badger, for the same reason, is unclean to you.

6And the hare, because the horn of its foot is not parted in two, is unclean to you.

7And the pig is unclean to you, because though the horn of its foot is parted, its food does not come back.

8Their flesh may not be used for food, and their dead bodies may not even be touched; they are unclean to you.

9These you may have for food of all things living in the water: anything living in the water, in the seas or rivers, which has special parts for swimming and skin formed of thin plates, may be used for food.

10All other things living and moving in the water, in the sea or in the rivers, are a disgusting thing to you;

11They may not be used for food, and their dead bodies are disgusting to you.

12Anything in the water which has no special parts for swimming and no thin plates on its skin is disgusting to you.

13And among birds these are to be disgusting to you, and not to be used for food: the eagle and the gier-eagle and the ospray;

14And the kite and the falcon, and birds of that sort;

15Every raven, and birds of that sort;

16And the ostrich and the night-hawk and the sea-hawk, and birds of that sort;

17And the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl;

18And the water-hen and the pelican and the vulture;

19The stork and the heron, and birds of that sort, and the hoopoe and the bat.

20Every winged four-footed thing which goes on the earth is disgusting to you;

21But of the winged four-footed things, those which have long legs for jumping on the earth you may have for food;

22Such as all the different sorts of locust.

23But all other winged four-footed things which go on the earth are disgusting to you.

24By these you will be made unclean; anyone touching their dead bodies will be unclean till evening:

25Whoever takes away the dead body of one of them is to have his clothing washed, and will be unclean till evening.

26Every beast, in the horn of whose foot there is not a complete division, and whose food does not come back, is unclean to you: anyone touching one of these will be unclean.

27Any four-footed beast which goes on the ball of its foot, is unclean to you: anyone touching the dead body of one of these will be unclean till evening.

28Anyone who takes away the dead body of one of these is to have his clothing washed and be unclean till evening.

29And these are unclean to you among things which go low down on the earth; the weasel and the mouse and the great lizard, and animals of that sort;

30And the ferret and the land crocodile and the lizard and the sand-lizard and the chameleon.

31All these are unclean to you: anyone touching them when they are dead will be unclean till evening.

32The dead body of any of these, falling on anything, will make that thing unclean; if it is any vessel of wood, or clothing, or skin, or bag, whatever it is, if it is used for any purpose, it will have to be put into water, and will be unclean till evening; after that it will be clean.

33And if one of them gets into any vessel of earth, whatever is in the vessel will be unclean and the vessel will have to be broken.

34Any food in it, and anything on which water from it comes, will be unclean: any drink taken from such a vessel will be unclean.

35Any part of the dead body of one of these, falling on anything, will make it unclean; if it is an oven or a cooking-pot it will have to be broken: they are unclean and will be unclean to you.

36But at the same time a fountain or a place where water is stored for use will be clean; but anyone touching their dead bodies will be unclean.

37If any part of the dead body of one of these gets on to any seed for planting, it is clean;

38But if water is put on the seed, and any part of the dead body gets on to it, it will be unclean to you.

39And if any beast which may be used for food comes to a natural death, anyone touching its dead body will be unclean till evening.

40And he who makes use of any part of its body for food is to have his clothing washed and be unclean till evening; and anyone taking away its body is to have his clothing washed and be unclean till evening.

41Everything which goes flat on its body on the earth is disgusting, and is not to be used for food.

42Whatever goes on its stomach or on four feet or has a great number of feet, even all those going flat on the earth, may not be used for food, for they are disgusting.

43You are not to make yourselves disgusting with anything which goes about flat on the earth; you may not make yourselves unclean with them, in such a way that you are not holy to me.

44For I am the Lord your God: for this reason, make and keep yourselves holy, for I am holy; you are not to make yourselves unclean with any sort of thing which goes about flat on the earth.

45For I am the Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; so be you holy, for I am holy.

46This is the law about beasts and birds and every living thing moving in the waters, and every living thing which goes flat on the earth:

47Marking out the unclean from the clean, and the living thing which may be used for food from that which may not.

Leviticus 12

1And the Lord said to Moses,

2Say to the children of Israel, If a woman is with child and gives birth to a male child, she will be unclean for seven days, as when she is unwell.

3And on the eighth day let him be given circumcision.

4And she will be unclean for thirty-three days till the flow of her blood is stopped; no holy thing may be touched by her, and she may not come into the holy place, till the days for making her clean are ended.

5But if she gives birth to a female child, then she will be unclean for two weeks, as when she is unwell; and she will not be completely clean for sixty-six days.

6And when the days are ended for making her clean for a son or a daughter, let her take to the priest at the door of the Tent of meeting, a lamb of the first year for a burned offering and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin-offering:

7And the priest is to make an offering of it before the Lord and take away her sin, and she will be made clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for a woman who gives birth to a male or a female.

8And if she has not money enough for a lamb, then let her take two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burned offering and the other for a sin-offering, and the priest will take away her sin and she will be clean,

Proverbs 24

1Have no envy for evil men, or any desire to be with them:

2For the purposes of their hearts are destruction, and their lips are talking of trouble.

3The building of a house is by wisdom, and by reason it is made strong:

4And by knowledge its rooms are full of all dear and pleasing things.

5A wise man is strong; and a man of knowledge makes strength greater.

6For by wise guiding you will overcome in war: and in a number of wise guides there is salvation.

7Wisdom is outside the power of the foolish: he keeps his mouth shut in the public place.

8He whose purposes are bad will be named a man of evil designs.

9The purpose of the foolish is sin: and the hater of authority is disgusting to others.

10If you give way in the day of trouble, your strength is small.

11Be the saviour of those who are given up to death, and do not keep back help from those who are slipping to destruction.

12If you say, See, we had no knowledge of this: does not the tester of hearts give thought to it? and he who keeps your soul, has he no knowledge of it? and will he not give to every man the reward of his work?

13My son, take honey, for it is good; and the flowing honey, which is sweet to your taste:

14So let your desire be for wisdom: if you have it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

15Do not keep a secret watch, O evil-doer, against the fields of the upright man, or send destruction on his resting-place:

16For an upright man, after falling seven times, will get up again: but trouble is the downfall of the evil.

17Do not be glad at the fall of your hater, and let not your heart have joy at his downfall:

18For fear that the Lord may see it, and it may be evil in his eyes, and his wrath may be turned away from him.

19Do not be troubled because of evil-doers, or have envy of sinners:

20For there will be no future for the evil man; the light of sinners will be put out.

21My son, go in fear of the Lord and the king: have nothing to do with those who are in high positions:

22For their downfall will come suddenly; and who has knowledge of the destruction of those in high positions?

23These are more sayings of the wise: To have respect for a person’s position when judging is not good.

24He who says to the evil-doer, You are upright, will be cursed by peoples and hated by nations.

25But those who say sharp words to him will have delight, and a blessing of good will come on them.

26He gives a kiss with his lips who gives a right answer.

27Put your work in order outside, and make it ready in the field; and after that, see to the building of your house.

28Do not be a violent witness against your neighbour, or let your lips say what is false.

29Say not, I will do to him as he has done to me; I will give the man the reward of his work.

30I went by the field of the hater of work, and by the vine-garden of the man without sense;

31And it was all full of thorns, and covered with waste plants, and its stone wall was broken down.

32Then looking at it, I gave thought: I saw, and I got teaching from it.

33A little sleep, a little rest, a little folding of the hands in sleep:

34So loss will come on you like an outlaw, and your need like an armed man.

Matthew 11:1-19

1And it came about that when Jesus had come to the end of giving these orders to his twelve disciples, he went away from there, teaching and preaching in their towns.

2Now when John had news in prison of the works of the Christ, he sent his disciples

3To say to him, Are you he who is to come, or are we waiting for another?

4And Jesus, answering, said to them, Go and give news to John of the things which you are seeing and hearing:

5The blind see; those who were not able to, are walking; lepers are made clean; those who were without hearing, now have their ears open; the dead come to life again, and the poor have the good news given to them.

6And a blessing will be on him who has no doubts about me.

7And when they were going away, Jesus, talking of John, said to all the people, What went you out into the waste land to see? a tall stem moving in the wind?

8But what went you out to see? a man delicately clothed? Those who have fair robes are in kings’ houses.

9But why did you go out? to see a prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.

10This is he of whom it has been said, See, I send my servant before your face, who will make ready your way before you.

11Truly I say to you, Among the sons of women there has not been a greater than John the Baptist: but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

12And from the days of John the Baptist till now, the kingdom of heaven is forcing its way in, and men of force take it.

13For all the prophets and the law were in force till John.

14And if you are able to see it, this is Elijah who was to come.

15He who has ears, let him give ear.

16But what comparison may I make of this generation? It is like children seated in the market-places, crying out to one another,

17We made music for you and you did not take part in the dance; we gave cries of sorrow and you made no signs of grief.

18For John came, taking no food or drink, and they say, He has an evil spirit.

19The Son of man has come feasting, and they say, See, a lover of food and wine, a friend of tax-farmers and sinners! And wisdom is judged to be right by her works.